Is It Any Wonder?

Rice-Oxley composed it in 2005 and demoed it that year. The guitar-like effects come from his distorted Yamaha CP70 piano. It was mainly recorded at The Magic Shop in New York, programmed and engineered by Andy Green. Rice-Oxley said it was probably the song on the record that most expressed the band's dismay and confusion about what it means to be a British citizen, with the Iraq War as its subject. He said it was not meant as a wide-sweeping political statement, but a personal view of how hard it is to know what is true.

It was the second single from the album. It reached shops on 29 May 2006, debuted at 15 on download sales alone and rose to three once physical sales counted. It was nominated for the 2007 Grammy for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group and lost to My Humps by the Black Eyed Peas. Kevin Godley directed the video, in which a camera moves along a metal track like a roller coaster with the band in the middle. Cover art by Sanna Annukka shows a red bird crying on a soldier's shoulder. The B-sides were Let It Slide and He Used to Be a Lovely Boy. Pitchfork's David Raposa called it the album's barnburner, relatively speaking.